Your Trustee Directors
BTPS has a corporate trustee, BT Pension Scheme Trustees Ltd, and this company currently has nine Trustee Directors. In addition to the Chairman*, there are four employer nominated Trustee Directors and four member nominated Trustee Directors on the board.
*The Chairman is appointed by BT with the agreement of the recognised BT Trade Unions.
Click each photograph to read their biography.
Paul Spencer CBE (Chairman)
Appointment
Paul was appointed as Chairman of the Trustee Board
on 1 March 2011, having been a Trustee Director
since 1 September 2009. He is chair of the Investment
Committee, and was a member of the Audit Committee
until 18 May 2017. He is also non-executive chair of
BTPSM, and a member of its remuneration committee.
Biography
Paul was appointed as Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Prudential Assurance Company Limited on 1 January 2016.
Paul is Independent Chairman of the BT Pension Scheme Trustees, and chairs the Investment Committee. Paul is also a Governor of Motability.
Paul was formerly a non-executive director of WPP, NipponKoa Europe Insurance and TR Property Investment Trust, a former chairman of State Street Managed Pension Funds, is a past chairman of two British Airways Pension Funds, and a former independent non- executive chairman of Hermes Fund Managers. Until recently when he stepped down in December 2017, Paul was an independent Trustee and Chair of the Rolls-Royce Pension Fund.
Paul was appointed CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours 'for services to financial services'. He is a past President of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and past chairman of NS&I (National Savings and Investments).
Adrian Askew
Appointment
Adrian was appointed to the Trustee Board on
11 January 2011. He is chair of the Administration
and Communications Committee and is a non-executive
director of BTPSM and chair of its remuneration
committee.
Biography
Adrian became a national official of Connect (now
the Bectu Sector of Prospect) in 1987 and retired as
general secretary of Connect at the end of 2009. He
was lead officer on pensions matters for the BT unions
from 1997 to 2003 and was chair of the trustees for
the Connect Pension and Life Assurance Scheme from
2003 to 2009. Adrian is a member of the National
Federation of Occupational Pensioners (NFOP).
David Felder
Appointment
David represents, and is a director of The Law Debenture
Pension Trust Corporation plc, a professional independent
trustee of pension schemes. The Law Debenture
Pension Trust Corporation plc was appointed to the
Trustee Board on 15 September 2011. He is a member
of the Investment Committee and the Responsible
Investment Oversight Committee. He stepped down as a member of the AVC Committee on 18 May 2017.
He is also a non-executive director of BTPSM.
Biography
David has over thirty years of experience working with
pension funds in both the public and private sectors,
first at Morgan Grenfell as a fixed income fund manager
and then at Kleinwort Benson where he was head of
fixed income between 1992 and 1998. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
Ben Marshall
Appointment
Ben was appointed to the Trustee Board on 11 January
2017. He was appointed as a member of the Audit
Committee and the AVC Committee on 18 May 2017.
Biography
Ben has been a trustee of a number of pension schemes
continuously for over thirty years, and until his recent
retirement was both chair of the General Federation of
Trade Unions Pension Scheme and a member of the
board of governance of the Steria Defined Contribution
Scheme since its creation in 2010. He has also been a
trustee of the BT Retirement Plan (now the BTRSS and
now a GPP) and the Accenture AHRS DC scheme.
Ben was National Secretary of the Prospect Communications, Media and Digital Sector until May 2017. In that role, he was responsible for leading all negotiations with BT (and many other telecoms employers) on pensions on behalf of Prospect members. Before becoming a union official in 1984, he worked for the Post Office as an engineer. He has a pension from the Post Office Statutory Pension Scheme and is a member of the NFOP.
Billy McClory
Appointment
Billy was appointed to the Trustee Board on
1 September 1997. He is a member of the Investment
Committee and the Responsible Investment Oversight
Committee, and was a member of the Audit Committee
until 18 May 2017. He is also the senior non-executive
director of Hermes Fund Managers Limited.
Biography
Billy was employed by Post Office Telecommunications
from 1968 to 1978. He is a former national officer of the
CWU and its predecessor unions the Civil and Public
Services Association and the National Communications
Union (NCU). He was responsible for negotiations on pensions matters in the telecommunications and
financial services sector and was the lead officer for
pensions matters for the BT unions. He is a trustee of
the NCU Staff Superannuation Scheme and was chair
of its trustee board until 2011. He is a former trustee of
the BT Retirement Plan. Billy is a member of the NFOP.
Jim McInally
Appointment
Jim was appointed to the Trustee Board on
26 November 2012. He is a member of the
Administration and Communications Committee,
the Responsible Investment Oversight Committee
and the AVC Committee. He is also an independent
adviser to the BTPSM remuneration committee.
Biography
Jim is HR director for BT Group. He is a member
of BT’s senior leadership team, a trustee of the BT
Healthcare Trust and the BT Rehabilitation Trust.
Jim has extensive experience in remuneration and
benefits and has held senior remuneration and benefits
director roles at four FTSE100 companies. He read
Economics & Industrial Relations at the London
School of Economics & Political Science, and Social
Studies & Quantitative Methods at the University of
Oxford. He has further qualifications in Theology,
Moral Philosophy & Social Ethics and in Electrical
& Electronic Engineering.
Keith Nichols
Appointment
Keith was appointed to the Trustee Board on 15 May
2017. He was appointed a member of the Investment
Committee, the Administration and Communications
Committee and the Audit Committee on 18 May 2017.
Biography
Keith was recently chief financial officer and member of
the board of management at AkzoNobel N.V., where he
played a key role in the sale of Organon BioSciences to
Schering Plough and in the acquisition of ICI plc and its
related pension liabilities. Prior to joining AkzoNobel in
2005, he held various senior finance positions across
a number of industrial sectors for companies such as Corus Group plc, TPG N.V., WPP plc and BET plc. He is a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Beryl Shepherd
Appointment
Beryl was appointed to the Trustee Board on 1 June
2009. She is chair of the AVC Committee and a member
of the Administration and Communications Committee.
Biography
Beryl has been employed by BT since 1978 and
is currently a member of the National Executive
Committee of the CWU, a position that she has held
since 2002. Since 2011 she has held the position of
chair of the Telecoms & Financial Services Executive of
the CWU. She is an active member of the Scheme and
a member of the NFOP.
John Wroe
Appointment
John was appointed to the Trustee Board on
1 July 2007. He is chair of the Audit Committee,
a member of the Investment Committee, and was
appointed chair of the Responsible Investment
Oversight Committee on 18 May 2017.
Biography
John joined BT Group in 1992 and held a number
of senior finance roles until his retirement from his
executive role in May 2017. Immediately prior to
retirement, he was group director of treasury for
BT Group, responsible for BT’s worldwide treasury
and insurance activities. He was a member of
BT’s senior leadership team. Prior to joining BT he worked for Coopers & Lybrand (now part of
PricewaterhouseCoopers). He is a Chartered
Accountant. John is a deferred member of the Scheme.